


make sure to keep my distance

by callmesera



Category: Persona 3
Genre: ( also yes this is a protagonist twins au ), ( anyway this one goes out to the like four people who ship this ), ( her name is Hamuko in this one lads ), ( where y'all at ), (but she mentions her brother like once as internal dialogue so i'm not tagging it), F/M, Fluff without Plot, general sweetness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29305803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmesera/pseuds/callmesera
Summary: say 'i love you' when you're not listening;how long can we keep this up?- ✤ -Truth be told, she isn’t quite certain just how they’d gotten here, walking hurriedly together towards the tram and pretending like they weren’t gradually getting drenched from the light rainfall above them.Or rather… perhaps it would be more apt to say that she isn’t sure how she’d gotten him here.
Relationships: Arisato Hamuko/Odagiri Hidetoshi, Female Persona 3 Protagonist/Odagiri Hidetoshi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	make sure to keep my distance

**Author's Note:**

> so this was written... ( checks notes ) .... four years ago, in 2017, as a drabble on tumblr that got NO notes but still stuck around in my brain like a gargoyle perched on a ceiling fan. it has not been at all altered from the original form except for slight reformatting to work on AO3's display.

Truth be told, she isn’t quite certain just how they’d gotten here, walking hurriedly together towards the tram and pretending like they weren’t gradually getting drenched from the light rainfall above them.  
  


Or rather… perhaps it would be more apt to say that she isn’t sure how she’d gotten _him_ here. By all rights, she should be trudging through this decidedly unpleasant weather alone, one headphone in and music blaring as she proceeded to regret every single decision that had led to her forgetting her umbrella this morning. Such a simple slip was as uncharacteristic of her as it was embarrassing —— she wasn’t at all looking forward to explaining to her brother why she’d be arriving home soaking wet.  
  


And yet, that aside, she remains somewhat baffled —— for despite what all logic should dictate on this horribly rainy day… she isn’t alone.  
  


It had begun so simply, as these things usually do. Caught in the council room after hours while helping to clean — an excuse to linger if she’d _ever_ come up with one — Hamuko had found herself glancing over her fellow council member and watching as he tucked away the last few papers necessary to the day’s work, completed. From there, it seemed only natural to suggest they walk to the tram station together, done with their work and heading in the same direction as they were —— though storm clouds gathered, the heavens had yet to do more than threaten gloom while the remaining two students collected their belongings from their lockers.  
  


No time had been wasted in their departure from the council room, certainly. But they still hadn’t been _quite_ quick enough to outpace the rain that now pattered softly against the glass entrance to Gekkoukan, leaving Hamuko to search futilely through her bag for an umbrella. A plaintive look at Hidetoshi once she came up empty-handed had, apparently, been all that was needed.  
  


“It is _February_ ,” he’d said dryly, passing a withering glance towards the sky as if he somehow expected that single statement to part the clouds and bring the sun shining through again.  
  


When it inevitably ( disappointingly ) did not, she’d found herself on the receiving end of a look that, even to her, was near unreadable. She’d perhaps call it calculating —— or she _would_ , anyway, had she not already known exactly what Hidetoshi looked like when he was truly weighing the benefits of an issue presented to him.  
  


The expression had soon passed, settling instead into something rather more _resigned_ … A resignation, as it were, that utterly failed to manifest in his voice.  
  


“ _Right_ ,” came the much more brisk statement. “Well. I agreed I would walk with you, did I not? Let it never be said that I’m not a man of my word.” Accompanied by a gentle tilt of his head as if in a beckon, the door in front of them had opened, and the two set on their way.  
  


Which led them to now, the rain around them growing yet heavier mere moments before the pair finally stumbled into the station, very cold and very, very wet. As she sets her bag down and begins to shake her arms off, Hamuko finds herself somewhat absorbed in the process of minimizing any chance that she looks as much like a half-drowned cat as she feels.  
  


A decidedly disgruntled huff from the companion next to her breaks her out of her focus, snapping her gaze upwards even as she prepares to offer an apology for coercing him out here with her ——  
  


—— only for the words to die near instantly on her lips, replaced by the fast-spreading beginnings of a grin.  
  


Oh, but his _hair_. Normally perfectly kept, the strands near Hidetoshi’s face have grown too wet to continue to hold their meticulously-formed shape —— what would have been bangs on any person was, on him, only just now beginning to slip into his face.  
  


Though comparatively slight, this is by far the most strict departure from his cool and collected grace Hamuko has yet seen; she’s so endeared in this moment that it physically pains her, something both lighter than air and heavier than any substance she knows coming to make its home in her chest, stomach fluttering and heart rabbit-quick. It’s only the urge to press her hands against her mouth and stifle the incredulous bubbles of _laughter_ she feels welling in her throat that prevents her from reaching out to brush the troublesome strands away from his eyes. He hardly seems pleased at her amusement… but refrains from saying anything, merely choosing to eye her with a look that read of resigned _tolerance_ more than anything else. As if he’d usually be annoyed by this but can’t quite bring himself up to it.  
  


Not that she really should be laughing —— not while the cold, somewhat unpleasant sensation of her now soaking ponytail clings to her skin and slides against her neck every time she moves her head. A mild annoyance, to be sure, but one that’s still slowly starting to get to her; it’ll never dry when it’s pulled back like this. She might as well go for broke by this point.  
  


And, well… it feels _rude_ of her to have witnessed someone as put-together as Hidetoshi suffer such dishevelment — entirely for her sake, because she’s the one who suggested this — without at least putting them on equal grounds. Surely it’s unfair… right?  
  


It’s hardly a question. The decision is made before she can think otherwise.  
  


Slender, somewhat calloused fingers raise to the back of her head and deftly tug the red hair-tie free, just before they comb through the dripping auburn as it cascades down over one of her shoulders. ( her uniform blazer is going to suffer all the more for it, she knows. thing is, she just doesn’t care. ) And thus, she turns her eyes back towards Hidetoshi still glimmering brilliantly with a bright, all-consuming mirth —— though her smile has faded just a touch, hinting at… what would almost read as self-consciousness.  
  


( for her part, she covers it well. no one besides Minato has ever seen her with her hair down like this —— she’s just as meticulous about her hair as the boy in front of her is about his, after all. it might be the middle of the day, they might still be in a public space… but it doesn’t stop Hamuko from feeling practically naked, like she’s let her guard down in the most intimate of ways. it’s… elating. )  
  


The fleeting moment of vulnerability doesn’t last, of course —— she doesn’t let it. No more than a second or two passes before her insecurities ( which are not at all compounded by the butterflies in her stomach —— she can feel Hidetoshi’s eyes on her about as tangibly as she does the water dampening her clothes, ) force her to look down and away, searching for anything at all that could serve as a suitable distraction. It’s only luck that the automated voice announcing a tram arriving plays over the speakers around them, jolting both of their attentions upwards at the same moment and breaking her of whatever spell had seized her self-control.  
  


It doesn’t take much longer until the train comes clattering into the station; Hamuko doesn’t even have time to do more than run her fingers over the red band ‘round her wrist in consideration before Hidetoshi turns to regard her once more. And maybe it’s just because she’s hoping for it, but she could almost swear that his normally stern expression has softened a touch, _appreciation_ just barely coming to warm his gaze. It’s subtle… but it’s there. Just enough to bring a tinge of pink to her cheeks and make her feel the slightest bit more confident in herself.  
  


… So she can keep her hair down for a little longer, can’t she?

**Author's Note:**

> ... someone out there has to ship it too. don't @ me.


End file.
